Personalization Is Important To Close an Order

In retail sales environment, it is well known, that while advertising might pull in potential customer to the store, the final decision about which product to buy happens, when he sees his options laid out in the shop itself. Similarly, in work domains offering service, personalization is the most critical criteria for closing an order. In a me-too market where products and services are aplenty and actual differences are not so apparent, the relation and connect which an organization representative makes with the customer is very important.

Personalization allows a company to tailor a specific product or service according to individual standards, tastes and preferences of various customers. Not only does this make it possible for both the parties involved to further a more fruitful work relation, it also in turns eliminates wastage of both time and money. By reducing the chances of repetitive and unnecessary tasks, both the organization and the client are able to take benefit of a deeper connection based on mutual trust. There are three broad methods of personalization, Implicit, Explicit and Hybrid. Implicit & Explicit methods deal with gathering information about the user. Implicit personalization deals with gathering user information without asking the user for this and that. Explicit personalization on the other hand usually is done by asking the user to rate existing / changed things, filling up forms, clicking radio buttons, etc. Hybrid personalization combines the above two approaches for the best of both methods.

Personalization involves proactively asking and recording of relevant information of clients which greatly increases response time during future transactions. Also sharing of information and showing a greater degree of transparency makes a potential client more confident about sharing his work requirement with an organization. It is also possible that customers are looking at more than one potential organization for their work requirement simultaneously. In such instances, if the organizational representative is able to build the trust in the consumers mind, the chances are he will win the order.

It calls for a greater level of initiative on the part of the organization which needs to prove it in competent even before it takes on a potential customer and turns him into a client. They need to be able to recognize and understand the unique requirements and concerns of each customer, which are bound to be different from others. This is only possible if the organization is open to objectively review and consciously aim to provide customer tailored service keeping the clients interest in mind. With this approach it will definitely be able to build its client base as well as brand worth to ensure repeat orders as well as good word-of-mouth publicity from its current clients.

The two categories of personalization are Rule-based personalization and Content-based
Personaliszation.Web-based personalization models are rule-based filtering based on "if this, then that" rules processing, and collaborative filtering, which serves relevant material to customers by combining their own personal preferences with the preferences of like minded others. This method works best for books, video, music, etc. Recently another method Prediction based on benefit is proposed for products with complex attributes such as apparel.

Hence the importance of personalization to close an order cannot be ignored; in fact it is sometimes the very point that marks the difference between a could-have-been and a current client.
For a company it is difficult to handle each and every call personally. However companies can develop scripts together with inbound call centers to handle customers. Call center representatives are naturally courteous and responsive. So hiring an answering service may be a viable option.


Randall J. Harmat is the President of Ansafone Communications a full state of art bilingual call center company located in Santa Ana, CA. Besides providing call center inbound services Ansafone's professional outbound call center programs are well known in the business community.